Zotac GeForce GTX 295 Video Card Review

Conclusions

On the previous pages you can see detailed comparisons between GeForce GTX 295 and other video cards.

The main problem with GeForce GTX 295 at this moment is its price, around USD 500 in the US. The most expensive video card based on an AMD/ATI chip, Radeon HD 4870 X2, can be found between USD 425 and USD 545.

In our tests GeForce GTX 295 outperformed Radeon HD 4870 X2 in some scenarios. On 3DMark Vantage it was between 17% and 19% faster with no image quality enhancements enabled, but when we cranked them up performance difference increased to between 26% and 32%. On Call of Duty 4, GTX 295 was between 11% and 40% faster than HD 4870 X2.

On Crysis, however, GeForce GTX 295 achieved a performance lower than GeForce GTX 285, most probably because Crysis couldn’t recognize the two GPUs, even though we manually enabled SLI mode.

On Half-Life 2: Episode Two Radeon HD 4870 X2 was between 6% and 7% faster. And on 3DMark06, which simulates older DirectX 9.0c games, Radeon HD 4870 X2 was between 10% and 13% faster at 1680×1050 and 1920×1200 with no image quality enhancements enabled, with both cards achieving the same performance on other configurations.

Unfortunately we have already shipped back the Radeon HD 4870 X2 to the manufacturer, so w
e couldn’t run Far Cry 2 or Fallout 3 with this card.

Compared to GeForce GTX 285, GTX 295 is a lot faster: around 50% faster on 3DMark Vantage, between 20% and 50% on Call of Duty 4 and up to 33% faster on FarCry 2. On Crysis GTX 285 was between 12% and 22% faster (probably because the game didn’t recognize the two GPUs from GTX 295, as mentioned before), and on Half-Life 2: Episode Two at 1680×1050 both achieved the same performance, but at 2560×1600 GTX 295 was 43% faster. On Fallout 3 they both achieved the same performance level, but at 2560×1600 GTX 295 was 6% faster.

GeForce GTX 295 is surely the fastest video card based on an NVIDIA solution (if your game can improve its performance under SLI mode), but at USD 500 we simply can’t recommend it for the average user: only rich high-end users can afford it. GeForce GTX 285, even though presenting a lower performance, comes with a far more accessible price, and we can buy one today for USD 350 and thus presenting a better cost/benefit ratio for users that want an NVIDIA-based high-end video card.